Narelda Jacobs

Narelda Jacobs is a Whadjuk Noongar Australian journalist, newsreader, and television presenter.

He was part of the National Aboriginal Conference delegation that to the United Nations in Geneva in 1981.

Jacobs and her parents were always interested in what was making the news.

Jacobs says she decided in Year 7 that she wanted to pursue a career in journalism.

She attended Hampton Senior High School.

After finishing high school, Jacobs applied to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) but was not accepted.

She got her first job working at the front desk of the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) and soon moved to their media department.

Shortly afterwards, at 18, Jacobs became pregnant to her boyfriend of two years.

She got married due to family pressure and her religious upbringing but six months after the birth of her daughter, the marriage ended.

With the support of her family, Jacobs returned to work at the NNTT.

After working for the NNTT for five years, Jacobs reapplied for WAAPA at the encouragement of her boss.

She was successful and began a degree in broadcast journalism at WAAPA.

After graduation, Jacobs began her career at GWN in Bunbury.

Her career with Network 10 began in Perth, Western Australia, in 2000.

She joined Ten News in Perth in 2000, eventually becoming their court reporter, and also filling in as weather presenter over summer.

In 2008, Network Ten announced that production of their Perth news bulletin would return to Perth from Sydney, and selected Jacobs as the new presenter.

Jacobs is the first Aboriginal, as well as the first openly lesbian newsreader in Western Australia.

She publicly supported a "Yes" vote in the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

In March 2019, Jacobs co-hosted SBS's broadcast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

In January 2020 she moved to Sydney to co-host Studio 10, and also and present 10 News First Perth.

Jacobs presents the national news bulletin 10 News First: Midday, as well as 10 News First: Afternoons.

She also works with NITV, as a co-host of the weekly program The Point, as well as appearing on various ABC Television.

She has also had roles in drama series.

She is the first Aboriginal, and first openly lesbian, newsreader in Western Australia.

Narelda Jacobs, of Whadjuk Noongar heritage, was raised in Perth.

Her father, Cedric Jacobs, was a Uniting Church minister and Indigenous rights campaigner, who was a member of the Stolen Generations, and her mother, Margaret, was also involved in the ministry.

She has said that she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian household, and attended born-again churches until her late teens.

The family had a large shed which would accommodate visiting missionaries.

Jacobs, aged around 12, was "told we have to save souls, we have to save people. And so I would be paired with some of them… to save souls by knocking on doors".

She was frightened of going to hell, and even more so of allowing others go to hell.

Jacobs was the youngest of five daughters.

Her mother was born in Belfast and of Irish and English descent, while her father was a Whadjuk Noongar man and a member of the Stolen Generation.

He was active in Aboriginal politics, and journalists would often be at their house or talking with him on the phone.

She co-hosted again in 2020 and 2021.

On 13 January 2020 Jacobs relocated to Sydney, after 20 years at 10 News First Perth, to join the Studio 10 morning talk show as a panellist.

However, later in 2020, Jacobs returned to read the Perth edition of 10 News First while juggling with working on Studio 10, following the network-wide cost cutting that saw the bulletin move back to Sydney.

In 2020 and 2021, Jacobs co-hosted the Sunrise Ceremony on 26 January (Australia Day) with John Paul Janke.

The event was simulcast on NITV, SBS and Channel 10.

In late 2022, it was announced that Jacobs was set to host an all new news bulletin, 10 News First: Midday.

She began hosting duties on Monday, January 9 2023.